Pressing enter in non-expanded SearchAnchor.bar loses focus

[parlough]

Steps to reproduce

1. Add a SearchAnchor.bar to your app
2. Run the app. (I tried macOS, CanvasKit, and skwasm)
3. Tab into the search bar
4. Click enter without typing anything (or after typing close search view and then click enter)
5. Notice focus is lost. At least on web, it returns to beginning of app.

Expected results

If the user hasn't changed the submission behavior, pressing "Enter" either does nothing or opens up the expanded search view.

Actual results

Focus is lost/reset when pressing Enter.

Code sample

Code sample

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';

void main() {
  runApp(MyApp());
}

class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return MaterialApp(
      home: Scaffold(
        body: Center(
          child: SizedBox(
            width: 320,
            child: Column(
              mainAxisSize: MainAxisSize.min,
              children: [
                SearchAnchor.bar(
                  barHintText: 'Search',
                  suggestionsBuilder: (context, controller) {
                    return [];
                  },
                ),
                TextField(),
              ],
            ),
          ),
        ),
      ),
    );
  }
}

Video demonstration

Expand for video

It's a bit hard to show in a video, but in the following video I tab into the search bar, and try clicking "Enter", but then focus is lost. Then I bring focus back to the search bar, type something to open the expanded view, escape, then try clicking "Enter" for the same thing to occur:

SearchBarFocusBeingLost.mov

Flutter version info

Version

Flutter 3.19.0-3.0.pre.43 • channel main • https://github.com/flutter/flutter
Framework • revision f961fdf2ba (4 hours ago) • 2024-01-10 17:37:07 -0500
Engine • revision a045134c91
Tools • Dart 3.4.0 (build 3.4.0-14.0.dev) • DevTools 2.31.0

[huycozy]

Hi @parlough
I also see the same behavior with a simple TextField so I think it's WAI. In case you want to keep the focus when pressing Enter key, you may try using textInputAction: TextInputAction.none for it. Do you find it appropriate to your case?

[parlough]

Hey @huycozy! Thanks for checking in :)

If this is the case for TextField as well, I feel it's an accessibility issue for both widgets. The default behavior resetting focus to the beginning of the app could completely mess up a keyboard user's workflow.

Also as far as I can tell, SearchAnchor.bar doesn't have a textInputAction or similar.

What do you think?

[huycozy]

SearchAnchor.bar doesn't have a textInputAction or similar.

It does :). There is a PR completed recently for this at #138553 (it's not landed to stable yet)

Since this issue is on TextField in general, could you please update the issue to correspond with that? This is more like a proposal so opening a new proposal could also be an option.

[github-actions]

Without additional information, we are unfortunately not sure how to resolve this issue. We are therefore reluctantly going to close this bug for now.
If you find this problem please file a new issue with the same description, what happens, logs and the output of 'flutter doctor -v'. All system setups can be slightly different so it's always better to open new issues and reference the related ones.
Thanks for your contribution.

[github-actions]

This thread has been automatically locked since there has not been any recent activity after it was closed. If you are still experiencing a similar issue, please open a new bug, including the output of flutter doctor -v and a minimal reproduction of the issue.